[ 2017-01-16 ]

Reducing taxes will require more time – Ken Ofori Atta
Finance Minister Nominee, Ken Ofori Atta has told
Citi Business News government will have to
undertake a careful analysis of its tax cuts
promise before it implements it anytime soon.

According to him, modalities for implementing the
NPP’s promise to cut down taxes will largely be
outlined in the 2017 budget. “The tax cuts will
be signaled strongly in the first budget and with
the type of deficit you have, we clearly will have
to be cautious about it.

But in terms of the trajectory object certainly
even in this first budget certain number of taxes
will be eliminated,” he observed. The NPP
government has promised among other things to cut
the 17.5 percent VAT on financial services and
domestic air tickets and reduce the corporate
income tax from 25 to 20 percent.

According to the party, the move should ease the
burden of doing business among businesses and make
them more competitive. Though the policies are yet
to be effective, Ken Ofori Atta is hopeful the
policies will influence foreign investments to
Ghana. “No we haven’t because we are just
drawing out the budget and we are enumerating the
number of taxes we promised in the manifesto and
then phase them in.

But as I mentioned the need to attract investment
is key and so those will also be looked at very
seriously.” Ghana- Morocco to increase trade
volume Mr. Ofori Atta made the remarks at the
sidelines of an economic meeting between Ghanaian
businesses and their Moroccan counterparts in
Accra.

Speaking at the same event, the leader of the
Moroccan Business Delegation to Ghana, Mrs Miriem
Bensalah-Chaqroun was confident the business
opportunities existing in Ghana should propel both
countries to increase trade volumes from the
current 67 million dollars within the shirt to
medium term.

“We don’t have very flattering figures; we
only do sixty seven million dollars of exchange
which is very low but in another hand as business
leaders and business entrepreneurs we see the
potential for more added value and job creation
because that’s who we are.” “The private
sector is the sector that creates most and more
sustainable jobs and this is a periodic map that
should be integrated into all our countries,”
she opined.

The meeting aimed at fostering trade and bilateral
relationships between Ghana and Morocco, was a
joint co-operation by the Ghana National Chamber
of Commerce and the General Confederation of
Moroccan Enterprises.

Source - citifmonline.com

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